Time is Short...Well, Shorter than it was.

I figure I'm going to live to be somewhere between 60 and 85. If that's the case, my life is between half and two-thirds over. Time, which seemed infinite not so long ago, now seems much less so. It's not an unconfortable tightness--not yet anyway--but for the first time in my life, I notice my own finite nature.

The clock is ticking and if I'm going to accomplish things, I need to start doing it. When I first got to that point in life, it bothered me. Just the idea of one's own mortality can be distracting. But now that the novelty of the realization has worn off, the time for screwing around is over. It's now time to figure out what's important and either do it or be it.

And that is a blessing. It's made me uncomfortable and forced changed. In the past, I'd have decided not to spend vacation on Cub Scout day camp this week. This year, I'm doing it. With the exception of two blueberry scones I've had at Barnes and Noble in the past two weeks--because I was hungry and those were the least objectionable things--I've steered clear of crap.

And I don't have time to let my own self-inflicted internal strife stop me from doing the most important things any more. I want to write, and I have, including this blog. And I want what I do to matter. I hope the sentiments offered here are useful to someone, and I know the work I'm doing with the kids is.

Mid-life, such as it is, is not a crisis; it's a wake-up call, a time to realize that you need to do the important things and get to them. And in getting to them, you can enrich your own life by enriching others'.